Adsorption of Phenol from Aqueous Solutions by Bael Furit Shell Activated Carbon: Kinetic, Equilibrium, and Mass Transfer Studies

Abstract

The removal of phenol was studied using laboratory bael fruit shell activated carbon (BAC) prepared using bael (Indian plant Aegle marmelos) fruit shell as a precursor. Adsorption of phenol onto BAC was studied in a batch process. Various parameters such as pH, adsorbent dose, initial phenol concentration, and contact time were optimized. Equilibrium contact time and optimum pH were found to be 120 min and 4, respectively. Optimum adsorbent dose was found to be 0.6 g/L. Five kinetic models were used to fit the experimental data, among them Pseudo-second-order kinetic model was found to best fit the adsorption kinetic data. Langmuir isotherm fitted the experimental data of phenol adsorption. The negative value of change in enthalpy showed that the adsorption of phenol onto BAC was an exothermic process.